How to protect your pdf?

Hey Jackson,

There was an active thread on this yesterday.

http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...pdf-files.html

Caleb

Hi - I used to doit, but I don't think it's worth it, frankly. And - I get irritated when I have a .pdf that always requires a password etc.

Best - J

Why not use a software like nitropdf to achieve that?

I am pretty anti-DRM, and went through the same though process myself when I made PDF - I actually considered it. I decided that e-junkie's stamp feature was exactly what I was looking for. It labels the PDF as theirs unobtrusively, but still puts a permanent identity on it which I think goes a long way mentally. Like a lot of people have said, there is no sure thing regardless of what you do. But definitely DO NOT make it an .exe file. As a MAC user that always makes me cringe... I know 10% blah blah blah...

I can't answer this, but... how do you make a pdf? lol

My advice is don't bother unless there is some very specific business reason (privacy perhaps). Ultimately a password will just irritate your users and from a security point of view the password protection is pretty useless. Any decent hacker would rip through that in less than a minute, so the security you are getting is illusory.

You can protect it by password:
- open the PDF files in Acrobat Reader
- select the tab File -> Document security from the menu
- go to the Security Options drop-down and select Acrobat Standard Security
- in the box labeled Password required to open document place a check mark againist it
- edit or type the password

You can add a password requirement for changing permissions or password.
To add this feature, check the box against required password to change permissions or password and enter the password.
This password must be different from the one that you set up before, to secure or password protect your PDF File.

If you want your PDF document to be password accessible to users with previous versions of Acrobat Reader (earlier than 5.0), do not change the 40-bit encryption setting or if your users or audience will be using version 5.0 or later versions (or full Acrobat program) then you may use 128-bit encryption.

To suppress printing of the PDF document, suppress changing the document, suppress content copying or image extraction, and suppress adding or changing comments, check the boxes next to the options that you want to apply to the PDF document. Then click OK, and you will then be required to confirm one or both passwords. Re-type them correctly and be careful in doing so.

There is no way to protect a pdf from being shared. Accept it and work around it. You will sleep better at nights once you accept that fact.

First of all put as much limitations on it as you can. Like opening password, editing password, printing protection etc etc etc/

But, still, you can't make it 100% safe from being copied/edited/ripped. {ripped in most cases}
Yes, sad but, true.

All the best.

The only product worth using is DLGuard in my opinion. It prevents randoms from finding your download link and just nicking the file. But as far as people sharing it. I sold 10 copies of my first ebook before it was on a filesharing site. You just gotta accept that it's a part of life. If you put a password on your pdf it's just super annoying for the customer. You have to find the right balance.

I agree with most of the comments here that it is a waste of time.

1) It will be a hassle for your customers
2) There are plenty of ways to get around it
3) Add ways to monetize it with other affiliate/product offers within the content so that if it is shared, you are still making money.

Kevin

There are very few ways to prevent the theft and sharing of your PDFs and most of them are not really very affective. You just have to accept this and try to turn it to your own advantage by using it to brand your business and putting in plenty of affiliate links.

Some people take the ultimate step and release free books and actively encourage sharing because they have found an effective way of monetizing there book.

Another thing you could consider is doing an amazon upgrade for you book